Mexico

This one was a real slog for me. I was determined to finish it. I learned a lot about Mexican history and the influence of Spain there, but it was distressing to read so much about the horrors of war and the violence in the bullfighting ring. There was lots more about the practice of cutting human hearts out of live sacrifices than I really wanted to know. I would hate to witness a bullfight, a bear baiting, dog fights, etc. I’m a gentle hippie woman who doesn’t even like pesticides.

It was good but not among the best books that Michener has written. Unlike some other reviewers, I thought that the bull fighting worked pretty well, if only because it was a visually and culturally-dense spectacle that acquires additional meaning as the retrospective storylines cross back into the Indian, Spanish, and American ancestors. Those ancestor storylines show cultural influences that layer meaning onto the two principal toreros, onto the bulls and the associated ranching, to the town and is architecture, and even to the religious (I thought!) significance of the bulls themselves. That said, I have read enough about bull fighting for a long time.

The part that did not work as well for me was the narrator: Norman Clay. I show more disliked that the vehicle for getting the ancestor stories was his reportage (I guess for the book he starts at the end of the novel). The consequence is that the story does more "telling" history than "showing" history through the words and actions of the characters. Readers are never carried along with the characters and allowed to see the cumulative influence of history. Instead, Norman tells us, hits us over the head with the significance. The approach just felt less artful than in other Michener books, even if the research is just as detailed. show less

I read most of this book during my first week in Mexico. It explains the unique culture of Mexico through the combined histories of its native and Spanish peoples. It relies heavily on the art of bullfighting as a metaphor. It's more captivating than others of his works I've read. I especially appreciate that, for once, the moral that always comes in the last 50 pages was more personal (involving the narrator, who resembles Michener, acting on his own inspiration). Now I just need to catch myself before referencing his city of Toledo and other fictional elements as historical realities.

Great book, especially the way Michener describes the bullfights. He uses the festival of Ixmiq as the thread of the story, to give a historical view of Mexico (the first inhabitants, the colonization by Spain, the wars with America) and a vivid account of the current bullfights. Fantastic!

I have read quite a few of Michener's books and learned a lot from them. Sometimes they can be a little dry but you learn a lot. This book read differently for me. The novel was about an epic bullfight, along with a lot of information about the rules and traditions. Interspersed in the book came the more usual Michener style of history told through realistic people that helped me understand the complex history of Mexico and the origins of many of its people. I almost thought at the end of the book (over 600 pages) that this really could have been 2 separate books.I really wanted the emphasis to be one or the other.

I would call this one a historical epic! This is my first Michener epic, and I am sure I will read others. This novel was very long, but still a great story with great characters. Seems to me you need to have a decent amount of patience and time to devote to a book like this. It is centered on Mexico, specifically, the narrator’s family history from ancient times to present. It shows a grand view of Mexico and its people and gives you many sides to the story of this very intriguing place. The narrator, Norman Clay, comes from a Mexican family with very important ancestry. Indeed this story could not be told from an average person’s viewpoint. Norman’s family line goes all the way back to important Indians who lived and worked to show more build the giant pyramid and on the other side, the Spanish settlers who came to bring Christianity and to see what they could take. Norman is an important journalist, back in Mexico after many years away to cover an important bullfight, mano y mano—two matadors (one Spanish, one Indian) who are going to fight it out. Mexico is an amazing history of bullfighting, a well constructed novel with subplots that are all tied together. An epic, definitely a learning experience. show less

This is about generations of the Clay/Palafox family extending back to the Altomec indians and beyond.

The nucleus of the story revolves around bullfighting, and I learned more about bullfighting than I ever wanted to know, but the descriptiveness of the author drew me in, and I was captivated by the history; especially the ancient history.